The Friendly Creeper
by pyjasmine
Summary: Bu-bu-but I don't want to spoil it at all. O well... Michael makes a wonderful discovery in the forest that impacts on everyone's lives (O-M-G). Characters based off of Rooster Teeth staff Michael, Gavin, Barbara and Ray. Check out their YouTube channel (they're so great!). Feel free to comment, positive or negative. Suggestions are welcome.
1. A New Discovery

Slash! Slash!

Away went the long grass by the sharp blade of Michael's iron sword. He was trudging along the forest ground, alone as always, trying to create some fun for himself. Unfortunately, Michael wasn't able to play with the other boys of his village because they were always busy, working, for some reason.

"Just come along!" he would insist.

"I can't," they would say every time. "I have to help Mother with the cooking/cleaning/fixing."

So every afternoon, after Michael had finished his sword training and been given permission to leave, he would run into the forest, wearing his warm, brown bear fur, hooded vest over his fading yellow T-shirt, holding his special iron sword with the emerald on the hilt, which was given to him on his seventh birthday a year ago, surrounding his small yet strong village, trying to create for himself a new adventure everyday. Today however Michael couldn't think of anything special to do. All of his imagination had been drained by his fatigue in the blazing hot weather.

An hour later of walking around and hacking randomly at plants at his feet, Michael fell onto the trunk of a very big tree and laid there in the shade. He finally came to realise that it was much too hot today to play in the forest.

"I have to find a place to rest, immediately" he said out loud, giving himself a small boost. He got up onto his shaking legs and propelled himself forward to find the village again, or, at least, a shadier area than where he stopped.

Michael's arms were so weak by this point that it took him two or three swings to cut down the foliage in front of him. As he began to stumble from exhaustion, Michael found a very dark, very deep cave on the side of a mountain. He had never before come across any danger in these forests and therefore didn't even consider that there might've been some dangerous creatures living in the cave. All he thought about was getting out of the sun, and that cave looked refreshingly cool. Adrenaline forced him to run into the shade, despite his dehydration.

When he got there, Michael slumped down on the hard, cold ground and lay there with his arms and legs spread out like a star. He closed his eyes and relaxation caused him to drift off. When Michael woke up again it was already night outside. He could see the forest around him, lit up in the moon's bright light, but thought it wiser to try and find his way back to the village in the daytime.

"At least I found this cave to stay in," he thought cheerily. "Maybe I should find a warm spot to stay at for the night."

He walked out to the edge of the forest and grabbed a few branches to create a fire. Michael had been taught survival skills long before he knew how to swing a sword by his noble father, the brave leader of their village. Father had thought it better to teach survival skills first, because sword skills would not be handy when you were lost. With the branches in his arms, he walked deeper into the cave until he found a spot which he thought had softer dirt than the rest of the cave. Michael dropped the branches and started a fire, big enough to keep him warm and give him substantial light.

Michael was not particularly tired now as his energy was revived after his long afternoon nap. He sat in the light of the fire for a long time, doing nothing, thinking about nothing at all. Suddenly there was a growling noise coming from deeper in the cave to Michael's right. He froze. Thinking quickly, he grabbed his sword and a large stick with a flame on top. If it was something small, like a wolf or a tiger, Michael could probably kill it easily and eat it, which made him very aware that he was extremely hungry. If it was a bear, he could probably injure it enough to scare it away. He had to go now.

Walking carefully, slowly, quietly, along the cave wall he approached the back of the cave. As he got closer to the growling, he saw two large shapes in the darkness but they were still and statues on the ground. Between the two figures, Michael walked closer and closer until he came upon...

A small baby boy.


	2. The Baby Boy

What?

What was a small baby boy doing at the back of a dark cave?

There was absolutely no conclusion Michael could come up with to how or why the boy was there, but he was. A very small baby boy, wearing a scaly green shirt, and green cloth around his rear end. Michael was filled with compassion, thinking about how this poor baby was probably left here alone, and those two large figure must've been his parents, long dead.

"Don't worry, lad. I'm going to look after you" Michael said proudly, as he picked up the baby in his arms. "What's your name?" he asked, but the baby could not speak.

"It doesn't matter. I'm going to name you..." Michael thought about it for a while. "Gavin, after my great-grandfather. He died valiantly protecting this village, says Father."

Michael brought Gavin back to the warm fire and sat him down against the wall. He examined the poor boy more closely. Gavin looked surprisingly healthy for a baby that could've been left alone here for days. He had a sweet strawberry red glow in his cheeks, dazzling blue eyes, an oddly large nose and messy brown hair. He didn't look very hungry, despite his skinny figure. As he finished inspecting the boy, Gavin started to sputter and spit everywhere, covering his chin in a thick layer of saliva. Like all babies, his cheeks were round and chubby, and the spitting actually made Michael laugh.

Michael suddenly remembered he hadn't even introduced himself. What a bad friend, he had been!

"I'm Michael" he said, pointing to his face for Gavin to see. "Michael."

"Mi-cool!" to baby boy laughed.

The two young boys sat there by the fire all night long, Michael talking to Gavin about his village and teaching him new words, while Gavin sputtered and laughed and clapped. Michael discovered he was very happy when he was with Gavin, even though he could not talk back. It was nice to have a friend with him.

Michael turned to his left when he had run out of things to tell Gavin and realised it was already nearing noon.

"Oh! We can go back to the village now" he told Gavin. Michael stomped out the fire, put his sword in its scabbard and picked up Gavin, who was now wearing Michael's hooded vest, which was much too big for the small boy. He carefully navigated his way through the dense forest by following his trail of fallen grass until he found himself back home.

Michael was very excited to show Mother, Father and his siblings his new discovery. He ran all the way up the hill to their wooden house. As he ran, a few heads turned to him, mothers looking horrified and children looking curious. He thought the reactions were very weird and guessed that something bad had happened while he was away.

When he got home, he called for Mother and Father. Father was probably busy already defending the village, but Mother was always home and she ran through the house, overjoyed to see her boy back.

"Michael! I was so afraid," Mother said with tears streaming down her face. "Don't you ever go off by yourself again!" she cried as she smiled and hugged Michael. Michael was a little put off by her comment but he was sure that would change when he showed her his new friend.

Mother felt a very large lump when she hugged Michael. She pulled away, asking him "What's that you've got there, honey?"

Michael took his vest off of the boy and showed his mother, with the brightest smile on his face. It quickly disappeared however when Mother stumbled backwards and started to cry again, but this time she wasn't at all happy.


	3. Monster

He didn't understand. Michael watched as Mother cried and cried while looking at Gavin, fear stretched across every inch of her beautiful face. The colour in her cheeks suddenly drained and the atmosphere became horrid and dark.

"M-M-Michael, why are you holding that?" she stumbled out.

That? Michael thought that was very rude of Mother to call a boy 'that'. "I found him in a cave" he said.

Mother nodded as if she knew exactly what Michael meant. "Why d-did you bring t-t-that here?" she asked. Michael ignored her impudence.

"He was alone, Mother! I think his parents died so I had to bring him back." Mother could not understand what he was saying. He doesn't know what he's talking about, she thought. Maybe he genuinely doesn't know at a. She stopped herself from crying now and looked at seriously Michael right in his eyes. "What do you think that is?" she asked as calmly as she could muster, pointing at Gavin. Now Michael couldn't understand what Mother was saying.

"It's a baby boy, Mother" Michael said, looking down at Gavin gently. Mother saw the way he looked at the thing, so serene and so naïve, and decided to settle this matter lightly.

"But we can't look after a baby boy, Michael. We have no room to house anymore people" she said smoothly. The happiness escaped Michael's face. The look pierced Mother in the heart. "The West Village can look after him," she lied.

"No!" Michael screamed, and now he started to cry instead. "I won't let you take him away. He's my friend." Michael held onto Gavin more tightly against his body, protecting him and keeping him away from Mother's arms. "The West won't look after him like I will." He was just making excuses of course because the West Village had the most beautiful, most large of all the villages in the valley.

"I'm sorry, Michael," Mother said, and she grabbed Gavin out of his arms and took him away. Michael fell to the floor, sobbing, and watched as Gavin disappeared into the darkness of the hallway. He wished for his father. Father would definitely side with Michael and he could use his support and protection right now. Michael looked up and could see that Gavin had become aware of the situation and was looking very scared. Michael thought he saw Gavin starting to shake violently from fright.

"Mi-cool!" he cried, flailing his arms around trying to reach for Michael.

"Gavin," Michael replied quietly, through a stream of tears.

The sound of footsteps stopped. Mother had stopped abruptly when Gavin had said Michael's name. She didn't think it was possible for the thing to talk. But she had heard it loud and clear. She looked down and sighed. What did Michael see that she couldn't?

She returned to the front and put Gavin on the wooden ground, who immediately started to sprint towards Michael's arms. Michael hugged him and Gavin laughed. But Mother stood there, watching the embrace completely befuddled by it.

"Michael," she said, "Do you know what that is?" once again pointing towards Gavin.

Michael was confused. "It's a baby boy, mum."

"No, Michael," tears in her eyes again. "It is a monster." Michael was infuriated that she would call this innocent child a monster when he hadn't done anything to hurt anybody at all! Mother took out her notebook and flipped to a page. It took her awhile because that notebook was filled with all sorts of information from campfires to dragons, and Mother loved to write. Michael thought it was great because she was one of the very few in the village that could write, and the only female.

She walked up to him and showed him a page. On there, there was a large picture that Mother had drawn of a big creature, almost as big as a grown man according to the diagram, with its tough armour of scales in every shade of green. It looked very mean. Michael looked to the top of the page where the word 'Creeper' was scrawled.

"These creatures, the creeper, are very dangerous creatures and they live around trees," Mother explained. "They are usually harmless but once you get close to one, it starts following you, but only out of curiosity. Unfortunately, they don't know that when they go near a human, for some odd reason still unfound, they die. Not in a painless way, but in a very hurtful way. They have a heart attack or a stroke which to them feels like a thousand spears piercing them all at once."

Michael listened intently to the story. "What does this have to do with Gavin?" he asked.

"That's the thing," Mother continued. "Gavin is a creeper, whether you see it or not." Michael was horrified but hugged Gavin even closer. "Never!" he yelled.

"Yes," Mother said sternly. "I don't know how the thing isn't blowing up yet. It's very strange indeed. And I don't want it in this house just in case it decides to die on us."

Impossible! Michael thought. What he was holding was not a dangerous creature. He was his friend, and right now he needed all the protection he could get. "You're not taking him away," Michael said, a dark shadow coming over his face. "I won't let you."

Mother had never seen Michael looking so dark. On many occasions, he would be scared but never had he been scary. "I know, dear. I'm letting him stay. But stay cautious," she warned, and she walked off to her bedroom while Michael cheered and Gavin laughed.


	4. Father

Michael was excited to tell Father about Gavin. He was always interested in Michael's latest discoveries and gave him all his attention when Michael told his stories. That night, Michael and Gavin fell fast asleep, well before Father had gotten home. Mother was still awake but she knew that Michael wanted to tell Father personally so she stayed quiet. Father went up to give Michael a goodnight kiss but when he was up there, he heard a low static kind of sound. Must be the wind, he thought, so Father left it as that.

Mornings were everyones favourite time of day because that was the only time they would be sure of seeing Father for the day. Around the table there was Father at the very head, and Mother to his right. Michael's oldest brother sat on the left of Father and the next oldest sat next to Mother, and the pattern continued down to Michael at the other end of the table. He had younger twin sisters but for some reason, girls were never seated at the ends. Altogether, there were twelve people at the table. Michael's older sisters usually took their plates of food to eat in their room. It must be because the table is crowded by brothers' muscles, he thought.

The family sat around the table as usual, talking about the last day's events, and Father paid close attention to everyone's story. They told their stories oldest to youngest. After many laughs and rants, it as finally Michael's turn. Father turned his eyes full on to Michael, which sometimes scared him but that was Father.

"What did you do yesterday, my boy?" Father boomed all the way down the table.

Michael glanced at Mother but her head was down and her eyes plastered towards her plate.

"I made a friend yesterday, in the forest" Michael said.

"Wow, a friend in the forest. Did he say where he came from? Was it one of our village boys?" Father replied in a weird kind of way.

"No, he came from a cave."

"Cave?" questioned Father.

"Yes, Father."

Father still looked quizzical but continued on. "Why don't you introduce us to your friend?"

"He's upstairs," Michael said simply.

"Upstairs! Well, I'll go up there right away and greet him then, aye?" Father roared. He motioned for Michael to stand up and followed Michael to his small room. Father didn't see anything at first until Michael pointed to a pile of green rags.

Everyone at the table heard a loud, low scream and Father unsheath his sword. Mother jumped up immediately from the table and ran up to the scene. Outside of the room, Father was in his battle stance with his sword up, ready to attack, while little Michael tried hysterically to stop Father from advancing.

"Peter" she said loudly. Her husband turned to her and saw her shake her head.

"I don't think you realise this, dear," began Father, "But there's a creeper inside of this room," he finished in a loud whisper.

"He's not a creeper!" Michael screamed. He ran over to Gavin and hugged him, as if he could protect him in his little arms.

Father was still in his battle stance but now looked at the couple with wide eyes. "What's going on here?" he said menacingly.

Mother dragged Father, still in his stance, by the arm behind the wall and quietly explained the situation. There was a lot of loud whispering and at times Father's voice got a bit too loud. "Shhh" Mother would hiss, and then the conversation went quiet again.

The conversation ended when Michael saw Mother falling to the floor, or so he presumed because her dress suddenly bunched together, and Father walked past the door towards the front of the house, glaring at Gavin. Mother stood up again and ran inside of the room to make sure Michael was okay and that Gavin was safe.

She caressed the young man's cheek and told him softly, "Father doesn't like Gavin, you know? Don't you ever let Father see him."

After that, Father didn't act normal anymore. He didn't ask Michael about his adventures, nor did he listen when Michael tried to tell him. They barely spoke to each other. Worst of all, Father never gave Michael another goodnight kiss again. It was always Mother, but for some reason, Michael became very sad every time she did.


	5. Hot Tempered

The village had gotten used to seeing the young boy and his creeper friend roaming the streets and playing games, but they still hid when they appeared and took their children away. They observed that even though the creeper only made growling noises, Michael understood him perfectly and answered back in English. They played hopscotch, they made a slide which they shared with the village children, they played tips, they swam together in the small pond behind the houses, they did everything a pair of normal human children would do, and all the while Michael had looked ecstatic. This didn't prove that the creature was harmless and instead freaked the villagers out even more.

One day, Michael and Gavin ran back to their home after a long day of fun and games. Michael had set Gavin down on the floor while he went to get drinks. When he came back, the floor was covered in torn pages and Gavin sat in the middle of the mess with the book in his hands. He looked up at Michael and smiled. But this was no laughing matter.

"Gavin!" he yelled at the top of his lungs. "What have you done? Mother is going to kill you!" Michael went quiet as he thought about it. "No, she's going to punish me!"

Michael went up to Gavin and snatched the book out of his tiny grasp. "How dare you? Now you're going to get me in trouble! Don't you ever touch anything ever again, you big idiot!" he screamed.

Mother had come rushing into the room by now and saw the mess on the floor. She looked sadly at all the writings and drawings. Michael looked at her and she looked dismally at him. Michael was so mad that his face had become extremely red to match his hair. He and Mother turned back to Gavin in the middle.

Shock spread across both faces. This time Michael could see clearly that Gavin had started to shake violently, while he sobbed into his lap. Michael didn't know what to do. It looked as if Gavin would fall into pieces at any time from shaking so much, like some of Michael's toys when he shook them around. He looked to Mother, but she just stared helplessly and shrugged.

"No, no, no, stop shaking Gavin," Michael said gently, sitting in front of him and trying to calm him down. He caressed the boy's chubby little cheeks. "Sh-sh-sh, it's alright."

Gavin had started to calm down but was still shaking slightly. "I'm sorry I called you an idiot, but you're not allowed to rip things up like that especially Mother's notebook." Gavin stopped shaking, but he still looked sad and guilty, which was enough punishment for now.

Michael stood up and turned to Mother. He asked her quietly, "What just happened now?"

Mother kneeled down to eye level with him and told him, "Gavin probably reacts to extreme emotion, honey. He might die if he does." Michael was very scared of Gavin dying.

"What can I do?" he said, about to cry at the very thought of losing Gavin.

"You can control your temper, young man," she whispered. "You've always been very hot-headed. Maybe Gavin can teach you to calm down."

This offended Michael, but he was grateful that his new best friend could teach him to be a better person. Mother hugged Michael, because she always knew when he needed support, and picked up her pages.

"I'm sorry about that," Michael apologised, pointing to the sheets. Mother looked at them grievously but told Michael it wasn't anything to worry about, and that the damage was not so big that she couldn't see her notes anymore. She tucked them away in the cover and was walking off when;

"Sorry."

She looked back and saw Gavin and Michael standing next to each other, both looking at her.

"Was that Gavin?" she asked. Michael nodded happily.

She was so overjoyed at Gavin's second English word that she picked him up and twirled him around. Mother didn't know it but Gavin laughed and enjoyed being in her arms. She finally saw Gavin as a loving, innocent little pet, instead of this ugly looking, dangerous monster, which was close enough to family in her eyes.


	6. The Village Children

Like every other day, the village saw Michael and Gavin playing in the water again. It was their favourite activity, always at noon when it was the hottest. It was also the quietest now because of Mothers hiding their children inside their homes. Michael was always with Gavin, so he didn't see another villager for a long time. Once he thought that maybe they had all somehow disappeared.

They were playing in the shallow water again when Michael turned to see a young village girl running up to them. She looked scared and yet happy at the same time. She was very beautiful, Michael noticed, with long golden hair, luscious pink lips and sparkling blue eyes. Behind her in the distance, Michael noticed an old woman standing at the door, screaming something incomprehensible at this distance.

"Hello," said the girl cheerily. "I'm Barbara."

"Hello," Michael replied. "I'm Michael."

"I know, you're the leader's son." Barbara pointed at Gavin. "Who's he?"

"His name is Gavin."

"Did you name him?" she asked.

"Yes."

Barbara jumped into the water with them and approached Gavin. "Hello," she said, tilting her head to the side. She giggled when Gavin did the same. "He's copying me!"

"He's just as curious as you are," Michael said, wading up to them. Suddenly Gavin started to shake violently and both children tried to run up to him and stop him. Woosh! A wall of water crashed over the top of them. They looked up after their surprise, completely drenched, to see Gavin had skidded to the other side of the water.

"Wow, did he just do that?" Barbara jumped up and down in the water ecstatically. "That was so cool!"

"I didn't know Gavin could do that," Michael said amusingly. He ran after Barbara towards Gavin and they played in the water all afternoon.

* * *

Three days later, at noon again, the trio were walking down the dusty hill from Michael's house where Mother had prepared a delicious lunch for them. Barbara was next to Gavin, trying to teach him to speak their language and trying to understand his, while Michael stood a bit further away, a strong feeling pulling at his heart. Mother had called it 'jealousy'.

Down at the playset, there was already a small, dark boy sitting on one of the swings facing the other direction. The trio stood frozen on the slant of the hill, staring at his back. He had funny looking brown hair and was wearing a black T-shirt decorated with a single, thorny red rose.

"Hello," Michael said, awkwardly.

The little boy turned his head around. When he saw Gavin, he jumped up off the swing and stood facing them. He was very skinny, and taller than expected.

"Hello," he greeted. "I've come to play games with you."

"What's your name?" Barbara asked.

"Ray Jr," the boy replied.

"What do you want to play?" Ray looked down with one hand on his chin, the other supporting the arm by the elbow. He looked up brightly and said "Let's play PIRATES!" He jumped onto the swing again, holding onto the rope with one hand and brandishing the other arm, like he was holding an invisible sword.

"Ar matey, come aboard me ship, and we'll sail the sees together."

"Ay ay, captain" Barbara said, solidly standing and saluting Captain Ray.

They played Pirates until dinner time and they all ate at Michael's house where they continued to play. The trio really like Ray, because he always had new adventurous games to play. He was also very funny and optimistic.

Thus are the simple events that formed this everlasting friendships between Michael, Barbara, Ray and the misunderstood creeper.


	7. The Last Chapter

**** 16 Years Later ****

Michael and Gavin were still best friends 16 years later. Both had learned a lot about life and themselves from the other. Michael did learn to control his temper, but not for very long as Gavin had somehow adapted to enjoy Michael's rage and laughed at him instead of crying and potentially dying. Gavin had also learned to speak a bit more English and modified some of his language to the English language to become nonsense words such as 'gob' and 'pleb'. No one knew what these meant but they were funny words to hear.

People from their village also started to accept this creeper being around as after five years, they started to realise that maybe Gavin was a good guy and not as dangerous as he seemed. They still found it weird however that there was a creeper on the stage, acting as best man on Michael's wedding.

About one year after the wedding, Michael's wife Lindsay had come rushing down to the border of their land to grab Michael from his post as defender and leader of the village. They ran back to their home where Lindsay pointed to sadly to Michael's old room, which now belonged to the creeper.

Inside, Gavin was lying down on his bed, very weak and very still. He was thankfully still breathing but Michael saw that it was almost the end. Michael and Lindsay both sat down next to his bed, and Michael held onto Gavin's hand. All these years, Michael never mentally or even physically saw Gavin as a creeper. Gavin was always Michael's boy, a human boy, and he was Gavin's. The couple had seen this day coming because for a few months, Gavin had been shaking all the time, just like some of the older people in the village before they passed on.

Michael stayed in the same spot, holding onto Gavin's hand, even two days later, when Barbara came over. She was now one of Gavin's best friends, even if she didn't have the same connection with Gavin like Michael did. She still couldn't understand anything Gavin said, except for of course "Mi-cool", and still saw him as a creeper, but that was expected.

Ray was also invited over but he sat beside Lindsay at the end of the bed instead of next to Gavin's head. He had become their best friend too but he let Barbara stay by Gavin's side, as he thought it was more appropriate.

For one day and one night, she and Michael held onto Gavin's hands until Gavin turned his head to whisper "Mi-cool" to his boy for the last time, before drifting off to sleep forever. Michael immediately started to weep and Barbara, Ray and Lindsay stood away. They cried harder as they watched Michael wrapping himself around his friend's lifeless body.

They had a beautiful ceremony for Gavin, as if he was actually human. The whole village turned up and covered his grave in fresh flowers. They also built a stone statue of Gavin, as seen through Michael's eyes, to be stood in the middle of the village square, in honour of their creeper friend who taught them to accept.


End file.
